“To me! This way!” It was Naroba, sliding down the edge of one of the dunes—asking me to climb up towards her, not to follow the path into the labyrinth in between the dunes.
Are you crazy! I thought in shock. That would only slow my flight down—what is she trying to do—kill me!? But a part of me knew that I could trust her. Naroba might be my rival in many respects—she might even hate me—but she would defend the Plains, and the Daza, from such horrors as that chased me.
“Take my hand!” Naroba shouted as I forced my tired legs to power faster, running on fear and excitement. I knew this energy wouldn’t last. It would only see me collapse in exhaustion very soon—but every step I took was leading the mechanical dragon away from my wounded dragon-brother, so I lifted my steps and ran on the balls of my feet, hitting the soft sands of the slope above.
You have to move as lightly and as fast as wind over water if you want to run across the dunes. I made quick and small paces, like a fire ant, as my mother would say—
But the sand was still sliding under my feet, and every fast step was making my thighs and back ache with the effort. There was the roar of over-worked metal and the grinding of cogs right behind me as I jumped, throwing out my hand—
“Got you!” Naroba slapped her hand around my wrist, and suddenly I was being pulled up. Naroba must have been on some kind of rope, and we were both scrambling and stumbling up the slope as the metal dragon skidded—
“Now!” I heard Naroba shout, as the hunters were moving and doing something to our right. Those that still had them were lifting their long hunting spears from the ground. These weren’t the smaller thrown javelins that we used to bring down deer or spear fish, nor the type of spears that had already been launched at the mechanical dragon—each of these spears were easily ten feet long, and which we would have to use when we were cornering an angry bison or having to drive away a Plains wildcat.
Our ascent stopped and I flipped over to see that a team of seven or so of the Daza hunters were skewering their long spears at the ground just at the metal dragon’s feet, and leaping with the long spears still in their hands—they were attempting to push the damaged thing over! It was an insanely brave thing to do, as each Daza spearman would have to launch him or herself from the dune’s edge and into the air to get the momentum they needed—
But they did it, and the metal dragon slammed into the spears, smashing half of them immediately but still stumbling on its twisted and damaged metals. As it did so, its shoulder hit the dune that Naroba and I had so recently climbed up, and I felt the shake of the sands underneath me as the mechanical dragon half-buried itself in the dirt—
“You did it!” I gasped to Naroba, as my Daza warriors were now running from where they had been hiding further along the very path that I had been running down—bearing stones and short mattocks and spears, clearly intending to hammer and pry at the beast until it was finally stilled. Where was Abioye? The thought flashed through my mind as I pushed myself up to look over the pile of sand and the collapsed dragon, beyond the scrabbling and exhausted Daza—
There. I saw a flash of movement on one of the dunes near ours. It was the fine blue cloak that Abioye wore. He was running with a group of ‘our’ Red Hounds, clearly drawn by the signs of our battle.
“It’s not over yet,” Naroba was panting as she lay beside me, pushing herself up on her hands…
“No, it’s not,” I was saying, lifting a hand to signal to Abioye that we were here, and safe—just
as the sand beneath us started to shift and pour past us like water.
Oh no. “Sand-slide!” I managed to shout, just as the ground beneath me started to go. It must have been the toppling of the mechanical dragon—it had been too strong for this delicate hill of sand to withstand—
There was a shriek from beside me, and, even though I was starting to slide myself, I saw that Naroba was already half-consumed by the tumult.
“Naroba!” I shouted, grabbing her hand as she had grabbed mine just moments before.
But it was already too late. The Shifting Sands pulled at my legs and my body as the world thundered to darkness. We were consumed by the Plains.
Chapter 21
The Cavern
Fight! Climb! Fight!
I could hear and feel the words in my head as I was surrounded by a choking darkness—but I did not know if they came from me or from Ymmen, such was my panic and confusion. All I did know was that I was surrounded by the Shifting Sands. They had completely enveloped me, and I was struggling to hold my breath and clamp my eyes shut as they pulled me further and further into the earth.
Swim! Swim! I told myself, trying to remember what you are supposed to do in situations like this. But—weren’t you supposed to lie still, for fear of being sucked deeper? Or were you supposed to tunnel your way out!?
But there really wasn’t anything that you were supposed to do, was there? I had never heard of anyone who had survived a sinkhole out in the Shifting Sands.
I’m gonna die. Out here. Alone. My panic suddenly spiked, forcing me to thrash my limbs as much as I could against the heavy dirt and sands all around. The thought of going through so much—four years of Inyene’s mines, Dagan Mar, the attacks and the raids by the Red Hounds, plus the battle... And through all of that, to finally be killed by the very Plains that were my home…
I could have cried, but that would probably mean gasping for breath, too. I held on to my desperate tears. I thrashed faster, hearing my own heartbeat in my ears—
“Little Sister!” This time, I knew that it was Ymmen’s voice, as I could feel his fire-tinged worry and panic as he flung his heart towards mine. I could sense him through our connection picking himself up. Lurching and forcing himself through the labyrinth of the dunes, heading for the spot where I had disappeared. I could feel the dragon’s pain even if he wouldn’t let himself succumb to it—
I’m so sorry, Ymmen— My lungs were now burning inside my chest, and I knew that any moment that they would force me to take a breath. But there wasn’t any air to breathe—not down here—
“Hold on!” Ymmen roared as painful stars started to explode in front of my eyes—
And then, suddenly, there was nothing at all under one foot apart from air, and I was falling.
“Ooof!” I hit sand, wheezing and gasping for air. Landing on sand isn’t actually as comfortable as you might think. It compacts into a hardened mat of a hundred sharp particles. For a moment I was not only out of breath but also winded as I coughed and spluttered, sliding down the heap of sand to a rocky floor.
Ug. I felt like that mechanical dragon had just landed on me—but at least I wasn’t dead.
Ymmen! I’m alright, I’m safe… I thought at him, still feeling his lumbering form approaching somewhere far above over the dunes.